I also drove for Uber in DC for a few months while I was between jobs.
I also drove for Uber in DC for a few months while I was between jobs. I thought it would be a fun and easy way to get a few dollars for beer. My experience mirrors that of the reporter. Towards the end, I would only drive during surge pricing hours, as that was the only way to make a reasonable net hourly wage. I have no problem hailing an Uber - they are really, really cheap. However, it's a raw deal for drivers. Uber turns a blind eye to driver-contractors driving without commercial vehicle insurance. It has to, as the additional cost (which is pushed onto the driver) would cause the driver's hourly rate to plummet even further. In addition, there is no way to purchase commercial insurance on an hourly basis - therefore part-time drivers would be squeezed out. The flat-rate $1 safe rides fee causes low-distance fares to be even more unprofitable, even when many short trips are already a bad deal due to the overhead involved in each pickup and drop-off. To fix this, Uber should probably cover drivers with an on-demand commercial policy while they are logged into the app. The flat per-ride fee should go away. And while I doubt this is going to happen, Uber should probably also reduce the commission they take per ride.
Posted by krapht on May 6, 2015, 10:34 PM
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Raise real-world problems, find people facing the same issue, and discuss solutions.6,500 issues0 comments
pricing (SaaS)
IMO it's a bit more nuanced than what the author portrays it as.
In the UK Amazon have now raised the price of general shipping to be 2/3 the price of a months prime subscription.
Credit where credit is due, critics claiming "[Apple device] is too expensive for something that just does [basic function]" have been pr...
I like to buy music.
Meet K-Claw.
Fable is way too expensive for basic software stuff.
[Meta] Abnormal Codex usage/quota depletion and usage-accounting inconsistencies — cross-report tracker
[FEATURE] Passkey (WebAuthn) sign-in for Claude accounts, across every surface
I also drove for Uber in DC for a few months while I was between jobs.
I also drove for Uber in DC for a few months while I was between jobs. I thought it would be a fun and easy way to get a few dollars for beer. My experience mirrors that of the reporter. Towards the end, I would only drive during surge pricing hours, as that was the only way to make a reasonable net hourly wage. I have no problem hailing an Uber - they are really, really cheap. However, it's a raw deal for drivers. Uber turns a blind eye to driver-contractors driving without commercial vehicle insurance. It has to, as the additional cost (which is pushed onto the driver) would cause the driver's hourly rate to plummet even further. In addition, there is no way to purchase commercial insurance on an hourly basis - therefore part-time drivers would be squeezed out. The flat-rate $1 safe rides fee causes low-distance fares to be even more unprofitable, even when many short trips are already a bad deal due to the overhead involved in each pickup and drop-off. To fix this, Uber should probably cover drivers with an on-demand commercial policy while they are logged into the app. The flat per-ride fee should go away. And while I doubt this is going to happen, Uber should probably also reduce the commission they take per ride.
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